Hodgson hails makeshift side

25 October 2009 07:18

// A bit of a hack but it works// The article snippet is wrapped onto a second line, even when #article-sub is emptyif( $("div#article-sub").children().length == 0 ) {$("div#article-sub").remove();} Fulham boss Roy Hodgson was proud of his makeshift side which came from two goals down to draw at Manchester City.

The Cottagers conceded quick-fire goals to Joleon Lescott and Martin Petrov in the second half but responded through Damien Duff and Clint Dempsey to earn a creditable 2-2 draw at Eastlands.

After Thursday night's draining 1-1 draw with Italian giants Roma in the Europa League, Hodgson reluctantly named a weakened side but hailed their resilience in pulling back the deficit to earn a point.

He told Sky Sports: "Things were looking bleak but the players kept going very well, we played well and we got our reward by scoring two very good goals.

"It was good resilience and I think that the shape of the team was good throughout and they've got a lot of skilful attacking players and the shape of your team, your defence, needs to be very good.

"I've got to say, throughout the 90 minutes we kept good shape and we did a good job so I don't think we stole anything here today at all."

InjuriesFulham lost captain Danny Murphy and Paul Konchesky in the build up but Hodgson's replacements were up to the task, inflicting City's third straight draw in the Premier League.

Hodgson added: "We have a lot of injury problems at the moment. This was always going to happen but we're in the process of recovering those players over the next couple of weeks.

"Stephen Kelly had to come in at the last minute for the injured Paul Konchesky and we had Chris Baird playing in midfield in place of (injured players) Dickson Etuhu, (Kagiso) Dikgacoi, and Murphy.

"And of course, we're missing Andy Johnson up front as well, so the people who have come in have done a wonderful job and we had a tough game against Roma on Thursday night."

It could have been a different outcome for Fulham however after striker Bobby Zamora was guilty of a shocking miss at 0-0 shortly before the game opened up.

However, Hodgson was reluctant to criticise the striker, instead pointing to the fine overall performance of Zamora, regardless of the miss.

He said: "I thought Bob could have crowned a magnificent performance because throughout the game his target play, his running and his work-rate was second to none.

"Unfortunately, he's missed the chance of a lifetime to put us into the game before we actually got back into it."